Take Me Home
by moonbean
Summary: PRIMEVAL. My probably completely way off theory as to what happened at the end of series 1. Cutter gets a shock when he meets a strikingly familiar face, and realises that Claudia has not been erased from history after all.
1. Not The Right World

**A/N: Okay, I'm probably way off with this little theory, but it popped into my head and I had to write it down. I'm not even sure if it's very good, but I'll leave that up to you to decide! By the way, has anyone bought the DVD? I was really disappointed with the lack of extras. I was hoping for outtakes and deleted scenes and other bits like we got with the Doctor Who box set. I'm thinking it was a little rushed. Okay, majorly rushed. Also, Primeval needs its own category. Misc TV Shows simply won't do. How do I suggest it to the fanfiction big-wigs?**

**Disclaimer: Seriously, if I owned this the series would have been a lot longer than six measly episodes, and I wouldn't have let it end with such a mean cliffhanger!**

**See that little button at the bottom of the page? Press it! Reviews make me smile like a maniac.**

xxxx

Cutter felt himself being jerked forward as two hands grabbed his wrists. He only had time to register Stephen's face before the two of them were thrown to the floor by an exploding force shooting out of the growing anomaly. The next thing he knew the SAS team were running towards them, shoving them both out of harms way. Cutter scrambled to his feet and watched the glowing, cut-glass portal shimmer and swell even further before exploding and disappearing into nothingness.

"What the hell just happened?" he whispered hoarsely, eyes wide and staring.

Connor came up beside him, his face a picture of relief.

"For a minute there I thought it was going to swallow you up," he laughed incredulously. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I…" Cutter puffed out his cheeks and let out a long breath. Then, much to everyone's surprise, he put his hands in his pockets and strode off.

"Where's he going now?" Lester asked impatiently.

Stephen put a hand up to silence him and watched with the rest of the group as Cutter disappeared into the forest.

"Do you think one of us should go after him?" Abby asked.

Stephen went to walk forward but Connor stopped him.

"No offence mate, but you're probably the last person he wants to talk to at the moment."

Stephen sighed and looked to Abby, who in turned quickly directed her gaze away from him, a hurt expression gracing her pretty elfin-like features.

"Well," Lester piped up, disarmingly chirpy considering what he was about to say. "Seems like all that jumping between the past and present has addled the great professor's brain. And what was he going on about this Claudia woman for?"

"No idea," Connor said. "Time to find out."

xxxx

A few minutes later Connor found Cutter sitting on a log in a small clearing, his head in his hands.

"Professor?"

When Cutter looked up at him Connor inwardly gasped. The man was more distressed than any of them had realised, his piercing ice-blue eyes unashamedly giving away a mixture of grief, confusion, guilt and anger.

Connor sat himself beside him, hands clasped firmly in his lap. He'd felt all brave and important when he'd been the one to go after Cutter, but now he really didn't have a clue what to say. He knew he usually ended up putting his foot in it at the best of times, and now he was sitting with a man who was dangerously on edge. He tried hard to choose his words very carefully.

"Professor, what happened out there? Is this about Ryan?"

Cutter rubbed his hands over his face and stared at his loyal student. And then he realised; Connor loved all this stuff. He loved conspiracies and stuff about aliens. He believed in mythical creatures and was adamant that Doctor Who could very well be based on fact, even if the writers didn't know it. With a small smile, he briefly remembered a time when Connor had frantically hushed everyone into silence when he thought he had heard the TARDIS engines grinding into existence. And although she had usually been one to give Connor a strange look every time he went off on one of his mad, over-enthusiastic ramblings, Claudia had been the first one to burst out laughing. Claudia…

Cutter's face grew solemn again, and he turned to face Connor with great urgency.

"Connor, I need your help. If I'm right, then you're probably going to be one of the only people to believe me, despite what the others have already seen."

Connor looked intrigued. "Go on."

"When I mentioned Claudia earlier, I wasn't going mad. She really was here. Honestly. Something I did, or something we did, changed the past and now she isn't here anymore. And I don't know why and I can't even begin to think of how we can possibly make things right when I don't even know what caused it in the first place. But she existed. I swear. Claudia Brown, Home Office. Not your typical Civil Service pen-pusher. Funny and beautiful and brilliant." Cutter was now grasping Connor's arms and his face was pale and blotchy.

"Bloody hell," Connor whispered. "You're serious!"

"Oh yes. Very much so. Now, do you believe me?"

"Yeah, I… I think I do. Yes, I do."

"Fantastic. Now, what we –"

"- Professor? I know it's going a little off subject - well, hugely off subject, actually – but what happened to your shirt?"

Cutter furrowed his brow. "What?"

"Your shirt. When did it go from blue to black?"

"What?! What are you talking about? It was always black."

At that point, Stephen's voice came shouting urgently through the trees.

"Nick! Connor!"

The two men looked at each other and raced off back to the anomaly site.

xxxx

When Cutter and Connor reached the site, they soon saw what the urgency had been about.

The anomaly was back. Although it wasn't as ferocious this time. But what happened next completely freaked the whole team out.

"Thank Christ for that. I thought I was going to be stuck there forever!" The figure which had just emerged said, staring at the group and quickly noting their nervousness and complete and utter bewilderment. "What?" And then his eyes fixed on Cutter.

"What the…"

"That's it!" Screamed Connor suddenly, jumping up and down with excitement whilst clapping his hands together with childlike glee.

The two Cutters stared at each other in amazement.

"Parallel worlds! You," he said, pointing at the professor who was standing beside him, "came through the wrong anomaly. Oh, wow. I never thought I'd live to see something like this. This is incredible!"

Cutter number 2 stared at him incredulously whilst rubbing his hands down his blue shirt. "You what?"

"This isn't possible. Surely I can't have…" Cutter number 1 started. "But all the evidence fits. I, Professor Nick Cutter, have actually walked into a parallel world; just like that!" he laughed, somewhat hysterically, but soon caught his breath when he noticed everyone staring at him. He looked to his other self.

"If I said the name Claudia Brown to you, would it mean anything?"

Cutter 2 shrugged and shook his head apologetically. "No, sorry."

"Ha! So we didn't wipe her from history! Well, my history, not your history."

Lester crept up to Abby and Stephen and whispered, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing, or do I need to be sectioned?"

"As much as I'd prefer the latter," Stephen said, taking delight at the frown that appeared on Lester's face, "It does actually seem to be true."

"Definitely, definitely true," Abby added.

"I feared as much."

"Right then!" Cutter 1 addressed the group loudly to make sure he had everyone's attention. "I'm hoping it will just be a simple case of stepping back through this anomaly and finding the right one just floating there waiting for me. But something tells me it's not going to be that simple. After all, I didn't have two to choose from when I walked out here in the first place. So, I'm going to need your help. All of you."


	2. What Just Happened?

Claudia stood with her arms folded, rocking absentmindedly back and forth on her heels. She stared at the anomaly intently, only pulling her gaze from it every-so-often to check her watch. Two hours. Two hours since he had disappeared through the shining gateway. Two hours, and not a peep. Inwardly she was panicking slightly, but she mentally smacked herself around the head and told herself not to be so stupid. The future anomaly could be anywhere, and it might take them a while to find it; and then they had to get back again.

She didn't hear Abby creep up behind her, and she jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?" Abby asked gently, concern radiating from her eyes.

Claudia gave her a small smile and nodded. "I will be. As soon as they're back, I will be."

"As soon as _they _are back or as soon as _Nick_ is back?"

Claudia blushed and then gave a small laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, trying hard to sound innocent but failing miserably.

Abby grinned at her. "Yeah, right." She placed her hands on her hips and chewed her lip for a second in thought. "Can I confess something?"

"Of course," Claudia said, tearing her eyes away from the portal and giving Abby an encouraging look.

"We've um… we've all had a little bet going on. It's kind of obvious that you two have liked each other for quite some time now. Well, I say 'kind of', what I really mean is 'extremely'."

Claudia blushed again, the delicate pink of before turning a bright burning red.

"Anyway," Abby continued, "You've just won me 20 quid. So, thanks." She didn't know quite where she had got the confidence from to admit all this, but somehow she knew that the Civil Servant would not be mad, not when her face was still glowing from that kiss.

Claudia laughed again, more heartily this time. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I just want you to know that we all think it's great, that's all. You've been good for him, especially since Helen arrived back on the scene. You're the one that's finally helped him to move on. Stephen's loving you for it."

The two women looked over their shoulders at Stephen and smiled. He looked back at them, his expression confused and he raised his eyebrows as if to say, 'what did I do?'

They turned away from him, grinning knowingly.

"Speaking of Stephen, what's going on with you two?"

"Oh, nothing," Abby said, disappointedly.

Claudia nodded. "Still, I think he does like you."

"Yeah, right. When has he ever given that impression? And the whole being bitten by a giant centipede thing doesn't count."

"I've seen the way he looks at you. But, I get the impression he's had his fingers burnt in the past. That's why he's holding back so much."

Abby stared at Claudia sceptically. "How can you tell?"

"I'm good at reading people. You have to be in my job. You see, I knew Lester was an idiot the first time I saw him. I didn't need him to open his mouth to confirm it."

Abby chuckled. "Yeah. Well, as for Stephen… I don't know."

"Give it time."

The girls jumped when Stephen and Connor suddenly shouted out in alarm. The anomaly was beginning to expand, throbbing and twisting erratically, the sparkling broken ice effect growing brighter and brighter.

"Get back!" Stephen yelled, and Claudia and Abby turned and ran towards the group.

"What's going on?!" Claudia shouted.

"What's he done? What the hell has Cutter gone and done?" Lester demanded.

"Nothing!" Connor said. "No one can control what the anomaly does!"

There was a great blast of light, and the anomaly gave a great crackle, as if an electric current was surging through it. With one last heave that made the ground and the trees shake, it spun up into the air and imploded with a deafening snap.

Then there was silence, which was only briefly broken as leaves that had been disturbed from the trees softly hit the ground. Mouths hung open. No one dared to move.

After a few more moments, Stephen stepped slowly forward and came to a stop right where the anomaly had been. The others edged up warily behind him. Claudia, now that the shock was beginning to set in, let her tear-filled eyes overflow. She made no sound as they streamed down her face and dripped onto the forest floor. She glanced at Abby fearfully, and saw that the feisty zoo keeper was also struggling to keep her emotions in check.

Connor took a deep breath and dared to whisper. "What do we do?" he asked shakily.

"It's bound to open again," Stephen said, trying his best to sound confident. "It has before, right? And even if it doesn't, they're bound to appear through another one. Helen's with them. She'll find them. She always does."

"And what if she doesn't?!" Claudia suddenly snapped, her wet face glistening in the last few rays of sunlight that were forcing their way through the trees. "What if something's happened to her? What if she's run off and left them?!"

Stephen grabbed her shoulders. "Then Nick will find it! I thought you trusted him?"

"I do! But I don't trust her. Not one bit." She brought a hand up to her face and wiped her eyes.

Lester called out to the SAS team and they came bounding over. "Make sure this area is covered. No one is to leave this spot unattended."

"What are you doing?" Claudia asked.

"It took months for this anomaly to reappear. The best thing we can do now is go back to London and wait for something to happen."

Claudia went to protest but Stephen shushed her. "He's right. We'll be no good here."

Lester nodded. "Good."

"But know this," Stephen said as Lester started to walk off. "As soon as another anomaly opens, I'll be straight through it."

Lester turned and walked up to Stephen so that he was almost nose to nose with him.

"You'll do no such thing. I'm not going to be held responsible for your disappearance as well."

"What makes you think I'll disappear too?"

Lester snorted. "What is there to convince me that you won't? Claudia, with me please." With that he strode off, taking a few of the SAS team with him.

Claudia glared at his back. "I'm not going with you!" she called out after him.

Lester stopped and looked back over his shoulder at her. "Are you disobeying orders, Miss Brown?"

"Yes, Sir."

He pondered this for a second before pinning her with an irate stare. "My office, first thing Monday morning."

They watched him disappear through the trees and after a few minutes, Stephen led the group through the forest and back to the truck. He opened the door for Abby and Claudia and the two shaken women climbed in, Claudia's breath hitching in her throat as she saw Cutter's jacket thrown haphazardly on the back seat. Abby gave her a tight, sympathetic smile.

"He'll be okay," she whispered.

As Stephen started the engine, the stereo burst into life, Joy Division blasting through the speakers. He laughed. "Nick's favourite album," he said, shaking his head and switching off the CD player. With that, he turned the truck around and headed off back towards London.


	3. Wedding Crashers

**A/N: Thanks for all your great reviews so far! I know by the end of this chapter it might feel like the story is coming to an end, but it's not, so don't worry!**

xxxx

Nick Cutter and his parallel gang of dino-fighters had been searching for the doorway back to his world for nearly a month now, and he was beginning to get disheartened and downtrodden. He'd hoped that this worlds Helen would appear and lead them in the right direction. He'd pondered, albeit briefly, on whether his Helen had known they had come out of the wrong anomaly, but he had dismissed it almost instantly. Now, however, he was beginning to think otherwise, and he felt stupid at again giving her the benefit of the doubt. Traipsing through the Permian era had been dangerous, and nearly all the members of the trek had had to be rescued more than once. He wondered if this was Helen's sick and twisted way of getting back at him for kissing Claudia, but then, what right did she have to be jealous anyway? After all, she had been the one to leave him; let him think she was dead all those years for her own personal gain. Was she so full of herself that she thought he would instantly forgive her and jump back into her arms? He kicked at a stone in anger, sending up a cloud of sand. His musings were soon interrupted by his other self's yelling.

"Over here!"

The group sped to the top of the hill they were on as if they were being chased by a Gorgonopsid. There, in the valley below, was a twinkling gateway of light which was distorting the land around it. Cutter 2 poked his head through it gingerly, pulling out a few seconds later with a triumphant look on his face.

Cutter 1 broke into a huge grin.

"Home?"

"Almost," Cutter 2 replied. "It's your Permian era anyway. And there's an anonmaly there."

"So this is it then, you can go home." Connor said, sounding a bit sad that his parallel adventure had come to an end.

Cutter 1 let out a deep breath. "Looks like." He turned to face the group. "Thank you. For everything. As weird as this whole experience has been I…" he trailed off, not knowing what to say. He chanced a glance at Stephen, who gave him a tight smile before turning away sheepishly. No one had mentioned the Helen incident since that fateful day, and Cutter's other self had no idea of what had been said before he'd come back. He wondered if Stephen would confess all to him, as well as wondering if he should confront his world's Stephen when he got back.

Abby approached him and kissed his cheek lightly. "Good luck," she said, smiling sweetly.

Connor pulled a camera out of his bag and motioned for Stephen to do the same.

"Little memento for you, and for us," he said, placing both the cameras a little way away on a large rock. "Everyone get together," he called out as he adjusted the focus and set the timers, before jogging back to join them and positioning himself next to Stephen. Everyone smiled just in time as the flashes went off.

"At least you can prove where you've been now," Connor said, as he walked off to retrieve the cameras.

The two Cutters shook hands.

"All the best. And good luck with Claudia."

"Thanks. You know, I'm sure your Claudia Brown is waiting for you out there somewhere."

"Maybe," Cutter 2 replied with a smile. "It's probably about time I moved on."

"Definitely."

"Here you go," Connor said, coming up to Cutter 1 and handing him a camera. "Chock full of parallel pictures."

"Thanks Connor. Right then, I guess this is it. Thank you all, again." And with a wave and a smile, Cutter stepped through the anomaly and disappeared.

Once on the other side, Cutter let out a triumphant yell before running as fast as he could towards the anomaly that would take him home. He reached it with a huge grin on his face, and turned around just in time to see the parallel anomaly fade and disappear. Facing his prize once again, he took a deep breath and stepped through.

His grin faded as he looked around and saw no one, not even a guard, waiting for him. Strange, he thought. Surely there'd at least be someone here to watch the site. Cutter made his way through the forest, pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket and switching it on. Without thinking, he dialled Stephen's number and put the phone to his ear.

"I'm sorry, calls cannot be made from this phone," the automated voice on the other end informed him. Cutter frowned and tried again. Same thing. Frustrated, he shoved the phone back in his pocket and continued walking, all the while wondering why it had been cut off.

A short while later he came to the edge of the forest. "Right then," he muttered to himself. "Phone box."

When he eventually found one, he threw himself inside and picked up the handset, let the camera he was still holding swing from his wrist on its cord. Swearing when he found he had no change, he rang directory enquiries and asked for the charges to be reversed. His joy at hearing the phone ringing down the line soon vanished as the voicemail kicked in. He pressed the 'next call' button irately as he rang directory enquiries again. This time Claudia's voicemail sprang to life. And it was the same when he tried Connor and Abby. He slammed down the receiver and took a deep breath. There was no way he was calling Lester. Giving up, he walked off towards the main road and started to try and hitch a lift back to London.

xxxx

Two hours later, after finally managing to flag someone down who didn't think he was a loony or an axe murderer, Cutter finally reached the CMU. Whilst he had been sitting in the cab of the lorry that had picked him up, listening to the driver ramble on about politics he didn't have a clue about, the events of the last month had caught up with him, and he had found himself beginning to doze. Now, even walking across the university grounds to his office was a struggle. Weird thing was, he noticed, no one was around. Even on weekends students could still be seen milling about. With a huge sense of relief, he reached his office and pushed the door open before staggering inside.

"Stephen!" he called out at the same time as the startled Lab Tech looked up in bewilderment.

"Nick?"

"Yeah, of course. Who did you think it was?"

"Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed, running towards him as he sat down.

"Hey! What happened to my office? It's tidy! And where is everyone?"

"Gone home for the holidays." Stephen shook his head. "Nick, where the hell have you been? We thought you were dead!" Stephen said, completely in shock.

"Dead? I was only gone a month. I told you that if the anomaly closed I'd have to wait for it to open again and –"

"- Wait." Stephen interrupted. "What did you say?"

"I said, I told you if the anomaly closed –"

"- No, no, no. Before that."

"That I'd been gone a month?"

"Yeah. But you see, that's not possible."

"What do you mean that's not possible?"

Stephen perched on the desk and looked at him solemnly. "Nick, you've been missing for over two years."

Cutter eyes widened in surprise. The he threw his head back slightly and gave a small laugh. "Yeah, good one." When he noticed that Stephen was still pinning him with an intense stare, he immediately pulled himself together.

"Are you being serious?"

Stephen nodded and picked up a newspaper that was on the desk. He showed Cutter the date on the front.

"Oh my God," he said, putting his head in his hands.

"Nick, where were you?"

Cutter looked up at him slowly. "I… You'll never believe me. But all the proof I have is on this camera. First I need to get it developed and then I'll explain the whole thing to all of you."

Stephen nodded. "And you really only think you've been gone for a month?"

Cutter shook his head defiantly. "Yes, just a month."

"And where are the others?"

"Helen's… I don't know where Helen is."

Stephen briefly wondered why Cutter was giving him funny look.

"And the men, Ryan and… They were killed by the Future Predator."

The two men sat in silence for a moment; until Cutter noticed something odd.

"What are you all suited and booted for?"

"Oh, crap! I'm so late! I only swung by here to pick up the present."

"Present?"

"Yeah, for Claudia's…" he trailed off and licked his lips nervously.

"What? Claudia's what? Birthday?"

Stephen shook his head. "Claudia's wedding."

Cutter jumped out of his chair like he had been stung.

"What?!"

"Look, she hasn't - I mean - she didn't have a choice. It's all her parents doing. She doesn't even want to marry him, but…" he stopped and sighed. "It's too complicated to explain right now. I just know though, that if she knew you were back, she wouldn't do it. She's never got over losing you. Not really. The only person in the world who can stop her from making the biggest mistake of her life is you. But we have to leave right now."

Cutter nodded, his face set with determination. "Let's go crash a wedding."

xxxx

Claudia bit her lip to stop herself from crying as she clung on to her father's arm. She glanced behind her at Abby, who, as she stood there in her bridesmaids dress, looked as heartbroken as she felt.

At first, Claudia had been surprised at their blossoming friendship. To an outsider, it would have seemed almost odd. They were hardly alike. But they had been through so much together; they all had, and Abby had been a great source of comfort while Claudia had been trying to deal with her sadness at losing Nick.

"You look beautiful," her father said to her.

Claudia grimaced, and then had to fight hard to resist the urge to faint as the church doors opened and the music began. She made her way precariously down the aisle, all the while feeling Abby's eyes boring into her back. She looked straight ahead, showing no emotion as she reached the alter, passing her flowers to Abby without catching her eye.

xxxx

"Get out of the way, you idiot!" Cutter exclaimed as he raced the truck up a busy main road. "How far now?"

"It's just round this corner," Stephen replied, his heart racing from the adrenalin.

Cutter spun the truck around the corner and looked for somewhere to park. To his annoyance, though it was to be expected, the spaces outside the church were full and he was forced to park up the other end of the road.

Parking haphazardly, Cutter jumped out of the truck and sped off towards the church,

xxxx

"First, I am required to ask anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry, to declare it now," the minister bellowed out.

Claudia shook as she was met by silence; her groom looking at her with perverted smugness.

After a few moments, the minister turned to the groom.

"Richard Daniel Buckingham, will you take Claudia Katherine Brown to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

"I will."

The minister turned to Claudia.

"Claudia Katherine Brown, will you take Richard Daniel Buckingham to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

Claudia took a deep breath, trying to buy herself time. Although, what for, she had no idea. She looked to her father, who gave her a warning look.

"I –"

"STOP!"


End file.
